She'd Risk Anything, Anything
by buttercupbella
Summary: A girl with no name and no memories is challenged to a game of sixty six doors. If she wins, she can wish for only one thing that may or may not be possible - and she promises herself that she'd risk anything. Anything.


**Summary:** A girl with no name and no memories is challenged to a game of sixty six doors. If she wins, she can wish for only one thing that may or may not be possible - and she promises herself that she'd risk anything. Anything.

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**she'd risk anything, anything**

buttercupbella

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All she knew was that it was a game.

First, she had to sign her name on brown parchment. The gamekeepers said that signatories facilitated the "wonderful" atmosphere of the amusement and bound the player to his or her oath, that is, to not escape during the game itself.

She had no idea how she got into the situation - not one memory was lodged in her head, and she couldn't even remember her name. She didn't know how she looked like except for the brown hair that flowed freely past her shoulders.

_Mikan Sakura_, they told her. She was named Mikan Sakura - so she took the felt-tip pen that the gamekeepers placed beside the contract and tried her best to write her supposed name in cursive. Mikan Sakura, like what they had said.

Second, she was instructed to keep moving forward, regardless of the circumstances. The game was a test of courage. Of strength. Of power. If she was to be successful in completing the game, she would be rewarded with anything she deeply desired, imaginary or not. Unknowing as she was, she wanted - no, needed something. She craved for it more than anything in the world.

_My memory - my memories,_ she whispered, the two words barely escaping her pale lips. _I want my memories back_.

_Are you sure_? Her conscience seemed to taunt her, but she neglected it and paid attention to the faceless people standing in front of her.

The gamekeepers merely laughed and urged her to go on. They made promises of her past and gave her a string necklace with grotesque beads. She was required to wear it throughout the 'harmless and all-fun' challenge, and she fingered the bead with an etching of what seemed like a flame symbol.

Third, the gamekeepers said that all she needed to do was go through doors, and there were 66 of them. Once she opened the "last" door and found the real world in front of her, she was free. She was brave. And she was powerful.

But most of all, she would have her wish granted.

She was led to a dark room with nothing but the smell of corpses. Her 66-door journey would ensue here, and she felt like she wasn't going to survive. She wanted to run back to the place where the gamekeepers had located her, but she knew that that place was in ruins.

Twirling her finger around her brown locks, "Mikan" figured out that she didn't know what exactly she wanted. What were her memories like? Did she even have memories at all?

One of the gamekeepers snatched her wristwatch, saying that the game didn't have a time limit. He or she - Mikan wasn't aware - threw the watch to the side and pushed the brunette to the first door. Mikan inhaled sharply and turned the knob -

And found a sea of spiders in the room. The next door was covered with slimy and sticky webs, and Mikan's knees wobbled uncontrollably. She was stuck between the first and second door in a few hours, and after streams of tears, she finally made it with insect bites all over her body.

She realized that the game was one of fears. This was quite a large price to pay for her memories, but if they were that important, she'd risk anything. Anything.

The wristwatch would've been useful, she thought. For what seemed like days, she managed to get to the thirty fifth door. She had gone through mini-horror houses, a pond of venomous snakes, a morgue, and a large aquarium in which she nearly drowned. She was terrified, to say the least, in every encounter, but her resolve grew stronger.

Mikan reached the fifty second door. It gave way to a white room without any sound. This one was supposed to be the easiest, if not for the deafening silence that only reminded the brunette that she was alone. There was nothing hiding in the corner to scare her. There was no threat at all.

All that there was to be afraid of was herself.

By the time Mikan caught sight of the sixty fifth door, she was ready to collapse. The smell of burnt flesh overwhelmed her senses, and she stood motionless at the sight that welcomed her. So far, this had been the most terrifying of all her encounters.

Lifeless bodies were sprawled over the pavement. Some heads were rolling like tumbleweeds in the barren desert. A grand building was falling down and breaking into innumerable pieces. Children in black and red uniforms were running around and screaming for help, and Mikan just stood there, shaking. She didn't know how she could be so afraid of something she'd never known.

She wanted to save all of the people dying, but she knew she had to proceed to the last door.

Mikan would try her hardest to ignore the burning debris and the crying students.

After all, she'd risk anything. Anything.

All she had to do was find the sixty sixth door and she'd have her old life back. It turned out that the last door was inside the destroyed building itself, and before Mikan swung it open, she caught a glimpse of a crimson-eyed boy who stared at the blank space beside her, as if she didn't exist, as if she was just thin air.

This was it. She was free, brave, and powerful.

But instead of crying in happiness because she triumphed in the game, Mikan cried and sunk to her knees, only seeing the dark, dead room that she had already gone through before the first door. She was back at Door One.

_Once you open the "last" door and find the real world in front of you, you are free. You are brave. And you are powerful._

Mikan fingered the bead with the flame symbol while she lay in the dark, wondering what she did wrong.

_Of course._

Her _last_ door was the sixty fifth one.

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**end**


End file.
